Pratap Pothen re-emerges as director

Mar 21, 2007 PVS

Pratap Pothan has come back to film-making after a gap of eight years. He is to direct a Tamil film titled "Oru Naal Poduma" starring Madhavan and Rukmini, hailing from Bangalore, who is making her debut in Tamil.

Pratap plans to shoot the entire film in Toronto, Canada, in 40 days. He has given some successful films like "Seevalaberi Pandi", "Jeeva" and "Vetrivizha". The last Tamil film he directed was "Luckyman". He also directed a Malayalam film titled "Yathramozhi". These were all eight years ago. One wonders what had he been doing all these years? Well, he started his own ad agency named "Green Apple" and focused on commercials for MRF Tyres and Nippo. He is returning to cinema after finding a good film script. K. Rajeshwar, a director in his own right, and Arvind, who had worked with Pratap Pothen in "Seevalaberi Pandi", "Jeeva" and "Vetrivizha", have come together again for 'Oru Naal Poduma". Rajeshwar, who has been out of action for three years, writes the story, screenplay and dialogue for the film.

"Oru Naal Podhuma" is a romantic story which happens in a single day. Madhavan gets a meaty role. Since it is a musical, Pratap and his team were looking for a good dancer to play the role of heroine. And their search ended with finding Rukmini, who has learnt ballet and Bharathanatyam in US. She is cast as the heroine in a Hindi movie directed by Bharathiraaja.

According to Rajeshwar, the romantic plot is a Hollywood inspiration but Pratap and he have made it suitable for Tamil. "Oru Naal Poduma" is also the first Tamil film to have three music directors, Shankar, Eesaan and Loi who scored the music for many Hindi-hits, including "Kal Ho Na ho" and "Don".

There are five songs in the film and lyricist Vairamuthu has written the song "Oru Naal Poduma….. Oru Naal Poduma".

Would the new film meet the challenges of the latest trends? Pratap Pothen told a film magazine that post-production is very important for a film's success. He has a good drilling in this area. One handy cam would do for him. But when technical changes take place, one must also change. What Tamil cinema badly needs today is good writers and good directors, he stresses.

Click the Movie button below for more info:
Oru Naal Podhuma